[Klug-general] Alan Turing Pardon Petition

[nic dan]

Ben Keeley said 'Welcome to the Kent Linux User Group website. If you are interested in 
joining our friendly group of Open Source Software enthusiasts please 
signup to our mailing list.'
 
Friendly?

Ha Ha 

I went through a similar period of puzzlement as a disagreement,
 on much stronger terms, broke out when I first joined KLUG mailing list
I've come to the conclusion that these folks know each other well enough to know where their boundaries are,
but sometimes forget [?] how open the whole internet facade is to others, not so well known to the group
It still comes across as riddled with pedantry, but is very informative

I posted my support for the Turing partition, as, were it not for the posting,
A) I wouldn't have known about it, or the Bletchley show
B) I wouldn't have been able to put it on the Puppylinux forum and get more support from there

Thanks, James!

Somehow I can't help wondering if it might have been better for the family, if an alternate petition
for an honorary professorship might have been better?
I still don't quite believe the suicide story - we had another one of them recently, Dr David Kelly,
that seemed part of 'the way things are done'

On a more positive note, and as a matter of interest, I had a brief use of the 'secret bunker' war rooms 
at Dollis Hill, [GPO research station] many years ago, which we used as a recording studio, 
though it is pretty well unknown that this was where the British computer was built by a team 
led by Tommy Flowers that was later used at Bletchley Park for code breaking by Turing & team
It was an amazing place in its own right, being a [2nd WW] 'bomb-proof' shelter, 
with its own huge Rolls Royce 3 phase generator, and 10,000 line telephone exchange
The air conditioning gas filter room was 1/2 the size of a football pitch - wink
More info:
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/p/paddock/index.shtml

My view on the posting - right on
If pedantry becomes narrowing of interest to the exclusion of alternates, 
then linux is dead, and the world is lost IMHO

Aitch :)
===================================================
> Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 19:30:38 +0100
> From: box at yeleek.co.uk
> To: kent at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [Klug-general] Alan Turing Pardon Petition
> 
> 'Welcome to the Kent Linux User Group website. If you are interested in 
> joining our friendly group of Open Source Software enthusiasts please 
> signup to our mailing list.'
> 
> Friendly?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> George Prowse wrote:
> > James Blake wrote:
> >   
> >> Hi All
> >>
> >> I've been campaigning for a long time for an official pardon for
> >> Turing who, when facing prosecution in the UK for being homosexual,
> >> committed suicide rather than face chemical castration.  My father was
> >> the headmaster of Wavendon School in the grounds of Bletchley Park
> >> where Turing worked to crack the German Enigma code (among others), so
> >> I've always had an interest in the man and his work.  I know that this
> >> is a little 'off list' but if it wasn't for Turing we'd all still be
> >> using mechanical calculators and signing  Deutschland über alles every
> >> morning...
> >>
> >> Alan Turing was one of our country's national heros hastening the end
> >> of the Second World War and, along with Von Neumann, making some of
> >> greatest contributions to the developing what is now considered a
> >> computer.
> >>
> >> A petition on the same site to save Bletchley Park elicited a direct
> >> response from the Prime Minister, it would be great if all of those
> >> interested in this great man and the shameful way he was treated could
> >> take the time to sign this petition.
> >>
> >> For those interested in cryptoanalysis and the part it played in
> >> defeating the Nazis in the Second World War, there is an exhibition
> >> this coming weekend at Bletchley Park celebrating the 70th anniversary
> >> of Turing's arrival:
> >>
> >> http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/calendar/event_detail.rhtm?cat=special&recID=567861
> >>
> >> If you're interested in Turing there have been several books written
> >> about him, but one of the best is David Leavitt's "The Man Who Knew
> >> Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer" (ISBN
> >> 978-0393052367)
> >>
> >> The petition for an official pardon for Turing can be found at:
> >>
> >> http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/turing/
> >>
> >>
> >> James
> >>
> >>     
> >
> > There are some things that are close enough to the topic to warrant a
> > slight deviation but getting people to sign up for things - no matter
> > what the subject - is too far.
> >
> > This subject is already on the klug website by you, why did you think it
> > warranted a second inclusion?
> >
> > Also, can people STOP replying to emails and then changing the subject
> > to reflect another completely different subject, you need to create a
> > new email.
> >
> > George
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Kent mailing list
> > Kent at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/kent
> >
> >   
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Kent mailing list
> Kent at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/kent

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